GREENWICH VILLAGE — New York University filed plans with the city's Department of Buildings for the first building in their controversial expansion project: a 23-story tower holding classrooms, dorms, athletic facilities and community space.
The building is replacing the old two-story Coles gym at 181 Mercer St. at the corner of Bleecker Street. The plans were first reported by real estate blog YIMBY.
As DNAinfo New York previously reported, the architecture firms designing the project are Davis Brody Bond, which did the underground and outdoor portions of the 9/11 Memorial Museum and several Columbia University projects, and KieranTimberlake, which has designed buildings for several academic institutions, including Harvard, Yale, Wellesley and Penn State.
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Locals fought the expansion in court for years, but the university won out in the state's highest court last year. Demolition and construction began earlier this year.
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According to the plans, the new building will be 275 feet tall and hold 587,943 square feet of community space, as well as a 556-seat theater, a cafe, classrooms and rehearsal space, study lounges and a library.
The theater will span the cellar through fourth floors, according to YIMBY.
The basement level will also hold a pool, a gym, varsity practice rooms, an indoor track and locker rooms. Additional gym space will be located on the fifth and sixth floors.
The dorm space begins at the seventh floor, where the building will split into two towers.
According to NYU spokesman John Beckman, the plans were submitted for permits for excavation and to lay the new building's foundation.
Design details are still being worked out, Beckman said, and there are no new renderings available.
"We look forward to sharing the architects' work and providing more details about the building in the not too distant future when it gets to a sufficiently developed stage," Beckman said.
